Abused as a child, Robert Maudsley killed abusers as an adult

It’s one of the oldest questions in forensic psychology: are serial killers born that way, or somehow warped and twisted by their circumstances? Making a Monster takes a deep dive into this question, with some of the world’s leading psychologists coming together to analyse the lives and crimes of notorious murderers. In a TV first, each individual case will also feature insights from the lead psychologist who dealt with the killer in question.

Among those under the microscope is Robert Maudsley, currently locked away in solitary confinement as one of the longest serving prisoners in British history. His CV sets him apart from the majority of other serial murderers. For one thing, most of his killings actually occurred when he was already in prison. For another, his crimes were not sexually motivated, or committed out of an urge to control or dominate or inflict pain for the simple sadistic pleasure of it.

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In the words of forensic psychologist Dr Richard Walter, "He rationalises his murders almost as vigilante executions", a sense of righteous fury stemming from an anguished upbringing. Born in 1953 in Liverpool, Maudsley was one of 12 children. The sheer size of the family meant he and some of his siblings had to spend their earliest years in an orphanage run by nuns. This was a relatively happy time, with his brother Paul later recounting how they were well looked after.

But then they were returned to the so-called care of their parents, and the abuse began. "It was just the old fella who hit us, with his fists, belt and sometimes a stick," Paul said. "But our ma instigated half of it."

Robert himself said: "All I remember of my childhood is the beatings. Once I was locked in a room for six months and my father only opened the door to come in to beat me, four or six times a day."

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Eventually, he was removed from the family and placed in a foster home. "I couldn’t understand why they picked on him to be fostered out," Paul pondered.

Maudsley eventually ran away to London, where he got into drugs and began working as a prostitute to scrape by. He tried to kill himself a number of times, and told a psychiatrist that he felt murderous rage towards his parents. The simmering fury finally exploded out of him in 1974, when one man who picked him up for sex boasted of abusing children. Maudsley garrotted him there and then, and was sentenced to life for the crime. It’s said that he was nicknamed "Blue" because that was the colour his victim’s face had turned when he was being killed.

But things were about to get worse. In 1977, while being held and treated at Broadmoor Hospital, he and another inmate conspired to hold a third prisoner, a convicted paedophile, hostage. In what has gone down as one of the most infamous incidents in British prison lore, they tortured him for nine hours before killing him. As the notorious story goes, the victim was found with his head cracked open "like a boiled egg", and there were media reports that Maudsley had actually eaten some of the man’s brain. This was later disproved, but Maudsley’s moniker as the real-life Hannibal Lecter stuck.

Transferred to Wakefield Prison, Maudsley struck again the very next year. This time, he murdered two inmates on the same day. He killed one in his cell, hid the corpse under his bed, then stalked out onto the wing to find another victim to dispatch. He then casually walked over to a prison officer to announce the next roll call would be two short.